Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1912 — SILO INCREASES FARM CAPACITY [ARTICLE]

SILO INCREASES FARM CAPACITY

Many Farmart Taraing to H«s» Rocopt*cto Benoflcont Solation of Food Problem. (By GEORGE P. GROUT, Minnesota University Farm.) It does not pay to devote highpriced land, for long periods, to pasturage and the production of hay. The land can be put to more profitable use. In order, therefore, that dairying may continue profitable, Instead of depending, as in the past, wholly upon the pasture for the chief food supply of their herds, many of our farmers are turning toward the silo as affording a beneficent solution of the feed problem. It is doubly beneficent in that it not only does away with the necessity of devoting so much land to pasture; but also, by making available a cheap suppl/' of succulent and high-ly-relished food all the year round, it deprives stall-feeding of some of Its objectionable features, while keeping the milk flow at a higher level. During the past two or three years, more silos have been built than in ail previous years combined. The more prosperous farmers are often supplied, not merely with one, but with two good silos. i ( The economic value of this method of handling feed being generally recognized, the only real obstacle to the general introduction of the silo seems to be the first cost of the structure and of the machinery for filling it More stock can be kept and profitably fed, per acre, when ensilage is grown, than by almost any other method of feeding. . The silo practically increases the producing capacity of the farm at least 10 per cent, and often more. A 160-acre farm with a silo will produce as much revenue as one of 180 acres without. Therefore, the first cost of a silo—like that of a dwelling house, a bam or a team —should be considered part of the initial investment; and. if one’s capital is limited, it is better to buy a farm smaller by 10 per cent, rather than dispense with a silo. The producing value of a silo

on SSO land would be equal to that of twenty acres added to the 160-acre farm, or $1,000; on SIOO land, it would be $2,000. This is a low estimate; for the stock-carrying capacity of the farm will often be increased fully 2S per cent by the adding of a silo. As compared with its producing valuer the cost of constructing the silo is small. Round wooden silos cost from $1.50 to $3 per ton of capacity; those of stone, brick or cement, from $2 to $4-